CAPTCHA: When the human-test became too difficult

Proving you are a human just got a little easier. Those who have ever bought sport or concert tickets online are probably familiar with the sometimes impossible word puzzle to prove one is, in fact, a real person.

The puzzle, known as CAPTCHA, was designed to prevent computer programs from buying all the tickets within a few seconds. The premise was that the squished, angled jumble of letters and numbers would only be decipherable for humans. In some cases, however, it proved too tough for almost anyone.

The Associated Press reports that those using Ticketmaster will soon see common phrases or have to solve simple multiple choice questions. One example the article provided is “‘which one is a country?’ followed by a drop-down menu of answers including ‘monster truck’,'puppy’ and ‘Spain.’” The system will analyze digital clues to see if the one answering is human or not.

The quiz can also come in the form of an advertisement. “A puzzle sponsored by Southwest Airlines Co. makes buyers enter the words ‘Bags Fly Free,’” the AP wrote. Before, in some CAPTCHA cases, people had to wait for an advertisement to end before they could get to the test.

DO I REALLY HAVE TO WATCH THIS AD JUST GIVE ME THE NORMAL CAPTCHA, PLEASE http://pic.twitter.com/Pt0ISu0vthat demon

If the new system works out and becomes widely implemented, this could be the beginning of the end for CAPTCHA. Should that be the case, let’s look back at some of the best—and most difficult—tests it could offer.

CAPTCHA…それはちょっと…na9ata

HOW THE HELL CAN I TYPE THIS CAPTCHA?? http://pic.twitter.com/z1wUrqtBTyins Darkwulf

Did you know that all CAPTCHA words are Lithuanian obscenities? That includes the numbers.Brad Heckman

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This is such amazing news! I don’t like the idea of the adverts much but, anything is better than CAPTCHAs. Those are my biggest internet bug bear! I think the one on ticketmaster was one of the worst but the ones on peoples regular blogs are almost just as bad! I have started using CAPTCHA bypass software called RUMOLA to read and fill them in for me to make the internet a less stressful place! It is excellent and works perfectly but it would be better if everyone would follow ticketmasters lead!

What’s funny is that captcha’s don’t protect anything from someone who’s serious about their automated attacks. The latest tactic I’ve heard is for “free” porn sites to require people enter captchas occasionally to view the next image or film. Those captchas are actually screen scrapes of the hacker’s target. Enough people going through the site means the automated attack doesn’t even slow down when it comes to a captcha.

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